Cold Hard Truth

[Dan LCFC]

3 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

Why isn't he pressed on this point? That's disgraceful imo and shows that some players are bigger than the team. We need a manager who is strong enough to make the big decisions 

It's one thing to do it for Ronaldo but Kane? A player who has literally never won a trophy.

[TheStig]

When England play friendlies its usually against inferior opposition at Wembley. As far as I recall they rarely play any good sides and almost never away. Correct me if I am wrong. So apparently when they meet good opposition in the big tournaments they tend to go tits up. As in 2024....l

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

13 hours ago, FoxTimmy2 said:

Anyone else here having this problem now?

 

This guy got in the news which is what he clearly wanted

[PhillippaT]

9 hours ago, Foxdiamond said:

So to recap. It is obvious that Kane was not fit but picked anyway. Trippier was played in most games because Shaw not fit. Not sure Shaw is that good anyway but at least he is a left back albeit limited.

There's more to it than that.  As every decent footy fan knows, Kane has never won anything of note, and that's for a good reason.  Kane is too slow to be effective against the better teams, but against the rest, when the defence drops deep and he has time and space, he's lethal.  Spain were never going to give him that, so playing him was literally a waste of space and time, and that's therefore entirely Southgate's fault.  That we scored after he was subbed is not an accident, because Watkins forced their defence to drop deeper, allowing for more space behind EDIT: in front of them, that Palmer took advantage of.  WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEEDED FROM THE START.  But for us to then decide to sit back and let Spain beat us after we scored is also on Southgate.

 

The team we had at the end (with or without Toney) could have won us this match from the start, but Southgate alone ensured that wasn't going to happen.

 

He's not good enough to manage the players we have, and anyone who doesn't think this doesn't want us to win anything...

Edited 15 July by PhillippaT

[Dan LCFC]

2 hours ago, TheStig said:

When England play friendlies its usually against inferior opposition at Wembley. As far as I recall they rarely play any good sides and almost never away. Correct me if I am wrong. So apparently when they meet good opposition in the big tournaments they tend to go tits up. As in 2024....l

Played Brazil and Belgium in March. Won neither of course.

[Matt]

18 hours ago, grobyfox1990 said:

You can’t have watched Spain v france semi final and thought that was awful. 
Ps see below clip of when ‘football was real’ - you cannot possibly have enjoyed this crap, the ball doesn’t tough the floor. Without rose tinted and heavily skewed glasses on, the standard of football and ability is miles better now.

 

 

Sure. Because that’s the only alternative.

[Leicesterpool]

Last night with England losing battle in midfield does anyone thing we missed like a Jordan Henderson. 

[Nalis]

18 hours ago, grobyfox1990 said:

You can’t have watched Spain v france semi final and thought that was awful. 
Ps see below clip of when ‘football was real’ - you cannot possibly have enjoyed this crap, the ball doesn’t tough the floor. Without rose tinted and heavily skewed glasses on, the standard of football and ability is miles better now.

 

 

When you see clips of Euro 96 the quality is piss poor compared to modern standards.

 

Oddly enough though it seems worse than 1966.

[grobyfox1990]

6 minutes ago, Matt said:

Sure. Because that’s the only alternative.

What is your ideal alternate? Arsenal were an invincible team in 2004 and considered to be football artists. Chelsea had lampard, cole, hasselbaink, duff, petit, veron, crespo, desailly just off the top of my head. Some of the most celebrated footballers around! 
Producing absolute garbage in comparison to todays standards 

[Nalis]

The bashing of Kane is a little over the top considering he was carrying an injury since the UCL semis but who's fault is that? Kane or the manager for picking him? He's still one of the best finishers around and doesn't drop back as much for Bayern as he does for England.

 

Saying that, set up with the new manager has to be that no-one is immune to being dropped, and Kane either accepts it or retires from international football.

 

Captaincy to be rotated, or just give to Bellingham now.

[Matt]

26 minutes ago, grobyfox1990 said:

What is your ideal alternate? Arsenal were an invincible team in 2004 and considered to be football artists. Chelsea had lampard, cole, hasselbaink, duff, petit, veron, crespo, desailly just off the top of my head. Some of the most celebrated footballers around! 
Producing absolute garbage in comparison to todays standards 

I mean I literally credited Spain in the original post you seem to have took umbridge with.

 

Some the long passes, pinged balls (I’ll refrain from using rhetoric like long balls in fear of upsetting the natives) last night and throughout the tournament were excellent, blended with front footed forward passes. 
 

Spain used to be dull as ****, albeit successful but they have changed for the better and proved it can still be successful. Credit to them, I was pleasantly surprised.

 

Meanwhile the other teams I credited, who are/were very few and far between played well, I appreciate it's a little bit 'easier' for them as they had nothing to lose so could afford to go all out but some extent it worked for them, they did better than anyone expected and left with their heads held high.

 

Edited 15 July by Matt

[melvinmmelvin]

20 hours ago, atomicfox said:

Deep down we all know the England team managed by Nigel Pearson would have won that.

Wasn't Pearson defensive as well?

[melvinmmelvin]

20 hours ago, Izzy said:

I’ve lived through about six ‘golden generations’ and none of them have won anything.

Yes - I don't get how we're supposed to have fantastic players, who then get played out of the game while the opposition's fantastic players continue unchecked...

Edited 15 July by melvinmmelvin

[melvinmmelvin]

6 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

It's one thing to do it for Ronaldo but Kane? A player who has literally never won a trophy.

But didn't he play for Spu... ? Oh, yeah, I get it...

[grobyfox1990]

34 minutes ago, Matt said:

I mean I literally credited Spain in the original post you seem to have took umbridge with.

 

Some the long passes, pinged balls (I’ll refrain from using rhetoric like long balls in fear of upsetting the natives) last night and throughout the tournament were excellent, blended with front footed forward passes. 
 

Spain used to be dull as ****, albeit successful but they have changed for the better and proved it can still be successful. Credit to them, I was pleasantly surprised.

 

Meanwhile the other teams I credited, who are/were very few and far between played well, I appreciate it's a little bit 'easier' for them as they had nothing to lose so could afford to go all out but some extent it worked for them, they did better than anyone expected and left with their heads held high.

 

Fair enough, no umbridge as your posts are always more developed than ‘ticket office shambles games gone mate shambles’ hence I’m interested in what you desire rather than the others 

If it’s Georgia, Albania, turkey then I totally agree. But don’t we get a lot of that in the modern game? That’s why Southgate sticks out like a sore thumb to me. Plays terrible negative football which is so out of place in 2024 

[act smiley]

I guess this sums it up...

[UniFox21]

We're a day past the final and already the media is throwing in at various "issues" in camp, and other things 

 

They wonder why English football becomes toxic, when they themselves are the ones causing a lot of it

[Sly]

 

[DJ Barry Hammond]

On 15/07/2024 at 14:42, TheStig said:

When England play friendlies it’s ouusually against inferior opposition at Wembley. As far as I recall they rarely play any good sides and almost never away. Correct me if I am wrong. So apparently when they meet good opposition in the big tournaments they tend to go tits up. As in 2024....l

You’re wrong.

 

The introduction of the Nations League was designed to elevate the competitive nature of international football.

 

England’s last nations league appearance saw them drawn against Italy, Germany and Hungary - who thrashed us 4-0 at in June 2022 (we had Kalvin Phillips that night too, so no excuse!)

 

England finished bottom of that group without a win across the six games.

 

England’s qualifying group for Euro 2022 included Italy and Ukraine - we were competitive here, we topped the group.

 

However, England’s friendlies in 2024 included games against Brazil and Belgium - we didn’t win either of them.

 

Looking back through, it’s not difficult to spot serious signs of decline - struggles against Malta and North Macedonia towards the end of qualifying being examples - to the extent that you can’t help to think that England starting the tournament as favourites was unfounded hopium.